Daily News for Highlands and Cashiers, NC

Books & Bites at Hudson Library: Chris Swann’s Shadow of the Lions

Chistopher Swann, author of the literary thriller Shadow of the Lions.

Come to Hudson Library at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 31 for the third in this year’s Books and Bites series, a book talk with Christopher Swann, author of the literary thriller Shadow of the Lions.

Shadow of the Lions will take you deep into the dark heart of privilege, secrets, and lies at an elite boys’ boarding school in Virginia. Atmospheric and full of twists, this accomplished debut explores the nature of friendship, betrayal, and whether it is possible to escape the past. Swann, an alumnus of a boarding school himself and now a teacher at a private day school, brings to his storytelling an insider’s knowledge of the world he creates here, the closed, overheated atmosphere of the elite Blackburne School.

“All stories have at their heart a mystery, a question to be answered,” said Swann. “The question at the heart of this book—what would happen if your best friend disappeared? — is one that haunts Matthias. But just as fascinating to me is what happens to the people left behind in the aftermath. What kind of shadow would such an event cast over your life?”

Christopher Swann is chair of the English department at Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School in Atlanta, where he has taught English for more than 20 years. He holds a Ph.D. in creative writing from Georgia State University and has received honors from Georgia State University, Washington and Lee University, and the Heekin Group Foundation’s Tara Fellowship for Short Fiction. He was a finalist for both the 2018 Townsend Prize and the Georgia 2018 Author of the Year, among many other accolades.

Everyone is welcome to attend this free event. Lunch bites will be provided by the Hudson Library Board of Trustees. Books will be available for purchase, and Mr. Swann will do book signings.

For more information or to request an accommodation, please call the library at 828-526-3031. Hudson Library, 554 Main Street in Highlands, is open 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday.